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                <h1 id="blog-description">Google API Tech Evaluation</h1> 
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                    <h2 class="entry-title">Google Book Search API</h2> 
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                        <span class="author vcard">By <span class="fn n">Group 10</span></span> 
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                        <span class="entry-date"><abbr class="published">March 5th, 2009</abbr></span> 
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                        <p><a href="http://code.google.com/apis/books/" title="Book Search API">Google Book Search API</a> is an Application Programming Interface from Google that allows anybody to integrate easily and reliably with Google's books repository and to get the books information out of it. Google Book Search API could be used by anyone at any level of expertise because it consists of many ways of utilizing the API which differ in terms of complexity. The really cool thing about Google Book Search API is that it allows the user to embed a Viewer API on his/her website which enables people to see the preview of any book specified by the user as long as Google has it. Surprisingly, it only requires the user to write a few lines of code to accomplish this. Moreover, Google Book Search API gives users the ability to create both dynamic or static links to Google Book Search from their websites. It also provides the user with the functionality to get the book thumbnail from Google repository. Note that in order to do this the only thing that the user needs is ISBN. Finally the Book Search Data API can come in handy for more advanced users since it allows their web applications to view and update Book Search content in the form of Google Data API feeds. This means that by using this Data API the web applications will be able to perform full-text searches for books to retrieve standard book information, ratings, and reviews. It also grants access to individual users' library collections either for the purpose of viewing only or for modifying the collections.</p>
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                        <p>One of the alternatives to Google Book Search API is <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/" title="Amazon Web Services">Amazon Web Services</a>. AWS used to be a free service which allows anyone to use its API to integrate the Amazon e-commerce functionality into their own website. It allows people to see the price range, the availability, and the standard information of the book that they are searching for. It has now been made a pay per use service though many people are still using it. The advantage that it has against Google Book Seach API is that it allow users to see the price information of the books which could be very desirable for people who are looking to buy the book. The drawbacks are: First, it does not allow the user to see the preview of the book. And second, most of the features do not come for free. AWS also has the functionality to allow the users to embed thumbnails on their website for any books that they want as long as it exists in the Amazon database. One of the very good example of the extent of what AWS can do is <a href="http://zoomii.com/" title="zoomii">Zoomii</a>. Another interesting feature that AWS is Amazon Associates Web Service. It is a free service which allows the users to become affiliates of Amazon and to put advertising on their websites. It can be combined with the other services to generate revenue for the users by referral. For example, when people use a particular website to search for book with AWS, the Amazon Affiliate Web Services will let them see some relevant advertisements from Amazon. Then, when people click on the advertisements, it will bring them to Amazon and if they actually bought the product, some money will go the website's owner as part of the affiliate agreement.</p> 
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                        <p>Another alternative is <a href="http://www.abebooks.com/docs/AffiliateProgram/WebServices/" title="Abe Books Search Web Services">AbeBooks Search Web Services</a>. AbeBooks SWS is a service which puts real-time access to AbeBooks catalog in a web developer's hand. It allows the users to integrate AbeBooks search functionality into their own website. It can also be used in conjunction with the AbeBooks Affiliate Programs. The major drawbacks is that first, the use is restricted to users driving traffic to the AbeBooks website. Second, to use SWS the user has to contact AbeBooks to be granted the permission for this service. And third, it also does not have the functionality to embed books preview on the users' website.</p>
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                    <h2 class="entry-title">Google AdSense</h2>
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                        <span class="author vcard">By <span class="fn n">Group 10</span></span> 
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                        <span class="entry-date"><abbr class="published">March 5th, 2009</abbr></span> 
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                        <p><a href="https://www.google.com/adsense/login3" title="AdSense">AdSense</a> is an application from Google that allows anybody to place relevant ads on their website to generate revenue.  The major benefits of using Google AdSense is that it is very easy to set up requiring very little time and no additional resources.  AdSense will automatically read you site for keywords and determine advertisements that are relevant to the users that would be reading your site.  This makes it very easy for anybody to set it up, let AdSense determine the content, and make a profit.  One of the downsides is that advertisements are in fixed formats.  As a result it could be tricky to place it on your website if you have a really strict layout.  Furthermore, websites with more content generally make more money.</p> 
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                        <p>One of the best alternatives to AdSense is <a href="http://www.adbrite.com/" title="AdBrite">AdBrite</a>. Although they have a smaller selection of ad formats than AdSense, they do allow you to set your own rates, approve and reject ads or even sell space via a "Your Ad Here" link.  This allows advertisers who see your website to offer you better rates than what Google AdSense would get you.  Additionally, you can tailor the content of the advertisement to your website to generate more click-thrus.  AdBrite also has an auto ads feature like AdSense.  However the smaller amount of advertisers on AdBrite makes it more difficult to get relevant ads on your website through the auto ads feature. </p>
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                        <p>Yahoo also has an advertisement solution for people to take advantage of called <a href="http://publisher.yahoo.com/" title="Yahoo Publisher Network">Yahoo Publisher Network</a>.  Publisher Network and AdSense are so similar to each other that to the average user choosing one over the other is almost a matter of taste.  Google can kick you off payment if they feel you have violated their terms.  Some people have found Yahoo to be more lenient in this manner and many people have switched to Yahoo as a result.  Yahoo also supports all the ad formats of AdSense, making switching trivial.</p>
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                        <p><a href="http://www.clicksor.com/" title="Cliksor">Cliksor</a> is another great alternative to AdSense.  They provide better payouts for the advertisers (85%), and better ads targeted to the content of the website.  Clicksor is advertisements are considered to be truly content sensitive.  This helps improve click thru rates while earning a higher payout than AdSense.  However many users have found Clicksor advertisements intrusive.  They include animated ads, flash ads and pop unders.  Clicksor also has better payments for the average user.  Google and Yahoo payout once you have reached an earning of $100.  Clicksor on the other hand makes payments once your earnings have exceeded $50. </p>
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                    <h2 class="entry-title">Google Ajax Language API</h2>
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                        <span class="author vcard">By <span class="fn n">Group 10</span></span> 
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                        <span class="entry-date"><abbr class="published">March 5th, 2009</abbr></span> 
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                        <p><a href="http://www.google.com/language_tools" title="Google Ajax Language">Google Ajax Language API</a> provides a simple, fast method of creating a website that is capable of doing detection, translation and transliteration of languages. The only requirements is that you are be able to understand javascript and object oriented programming to. You do not need to use any databases, confusing translation algorithm, etc. Everything is done via the javascript accessing Google's backend translator engine.  Google Language API (translator) allows you to paste a whole text from an article or even a whole page.  Currently Google is still improving their translation technology.</p> 
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                        <p>Google's  approach to language translation: "we feed the computer billions of words of text, both monolingual text in the target language, and aligned text consisting of examples of human translations between the languages. We then apply statistical learning techniques to build a translation model. We've achieved very good results in research evaluations." </p>
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                        <p>There are a couple of other Language API available such as <a href="http://babelfish.yahoo.com/" title="Yahoo Babel Fish">Yahoo Babel Fish</a>, <a href="http://www.freetranslation.com/" title="Free Translation">Free Translation</a> and Human Translation.  In comparison with other technologies, Google provides more languages on its API.  Moreover, Google also provides transliteration which others do not.  Like Google translator, Babel fish and Free Translation have their own method (algorithm) to translate one language to another. </p>
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                        <p>It is very hard to say which one is the best, but there is a way to find which one is better (compared to human translation). Google translator in this case has more advantages because in addition to their algorithm, they also have the "system of the crowd" method. This system of the crowd method depends on user suggestion, "Suggest a better translation".  This is similar like our Bookiki application which allows the user to add the book to our system if they were unable to find satisfactory results. </p>
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                        <p>Overall, it is the opinion of this group that Google Language provides a better API for users to use over Babel Fish and Free Translation.</p>
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                    <h2 class="entry-title">Google Maps API</h2>
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                        <span class="author vcard">By <span class="fn n">Group 10</span></span> 
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                        <span class="entry-date"><abbr class="published">March 5th, 2009</abbr></span> 
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                        <p>The popular alternatives of Google Map includes oziExplorer, Yahoo Map, and OpenLayers. Among them, only Yahoo! Map and OpenLayers support map API. Yahoo Map has a SDK available for PHP, javascript, Perl which makes it more compatible. Google Maps API are all implemented in javacsript, and since some navigators do not support javascript well, it’s a small pity for google map. However, Google Maps API has the most abundant features than any others like markers, polyline, polygone and streetview. </p> 
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